Cards for Christmas: Students help ill boy reach record

Students at P.S. 46 have joined a worldwide initiative to help a terminally ill Kentucky boy fulfill his dying wish.

Bayside youngsters have risen to the challenge of fulfilling a terminally ill Kentucky boy’s dying wish.

Students at P.S. 46 have joined a worldwide initiative to help nine-year-old Dalton Dingus reach a world record for receiving the most holiday cards.

Dingus, who is in stage 4 of cystic fibrosis, skyrocketed to national stardom this month, when thousands of cards poured into his Salyersville home from international and countrywide well-wishers supporting his goal.

More than 1,000 holiday cards have been mailed to Dingus from students of every grade at P.S. 46, according to Janet Elias, the school’s technology facilitator.

“It was overwhelming – the beautiful things they wrote to him. They all told him to be strong and to believe in Christmas miracles. I wanted to cry,” Elias said.

Students in kindergarten through fifth grade designed 1,056 holiday cards on the computer, and then printed and mailed the compassionate creations to Dingus on December 17.

“It really means that these kids are so incredible. They have so much love to give,” said Elias, who added their next project is to fashion snowflakes to hang in the Sandy Hook Elementary school’s students’ new academic home.

Guinness World Records said it “currently does not monitor a category” for the task Dingus is tackling, but added the record on track was about 205,000.

According to the “Cards for Dalton” Facebook page, close to 130,000 cards had been received as of press time, with still plenty left to be counted.

The Dingus family is accepting cards until December 31. They can be sent to Dalton Dingus at HC 62 Box 1249 in Salyersville, KY 41465.